With all the stuff missing from today’s country like steel guitar and fiddle, strong voices, quality songwriting, heartbreak, talent, twang, actual country music, not enough is made about the loss of wit and humor in much of the country music you hear today. Whatever happened to the hilarious songs of Shel Silverstein and the innuendo of Roy Acuff’s early material? Like so much of the great stuff about country music, it’s mostly gone.

That’s where the Hellroys out of Ohio come in with their new record, Hellroys Is Real. And no, this isn’t just another version of Wheeler Walker Jr. with a bunch of salacious material and swear words being run down your throat machine gun style. No offense to Ol’ Wheeler, but there’s nothing laid between the lines there. With an outfit like the Hellroys though, a lot more tact goes into this music, and the result is something that is enjoyable to a wider crowd, and longer lasting.

Humor in country songs is just so much better when you have to beat around the bush a little bit, and rely on innuendo and metaphor to get your point across. It gets the imagination of the audience stirring, and it takes a lot more cunning to craft. Not that the Hellroys don’t let a dirty word slip in here and there, but they let your imagination go to the bad places first. They just light the spark.

And like all great sarcasm, a lot of it works so well because it’s rooted in truth, like in the opening song of the album, “My Truck Is Loud.” All of us know one of these yahoos, or see them at the local Wal-Mart or whatever. It’s a universal archetype no matter where you are in America, and that’s what makes it so hilarious.

The Hellroys have a great energy to their music. It’s country with a punch, sort of like the the side project country stuff of Eddie Speghetti, but funnier. They bring skill and smarts not just to the lyrics, but to the music, and walk the line between humor and indecency just about perfectly, like it in the ode to corporal punishment, “My Kids Are Getting Too Big (to Hit)” or the entertaining “Weremilf.”

Also all great humor is best when it’s willing to be self-deprecating, like when the protagonist figures out in “Anal Alien” that his abuser isn’t an extra-terrestrial, but (*spoiler*) some guy from his bowling league, or when it’s self-aware like in “You Gave Me a Semi” when any question of what the song is about is revealed quite bluntly in the line, “it’s a dick metaphor!”

The Hellroys call themselves the “Sole Purveyors of Dumb Country Noise.” That’s probably an appropriate subtitle. But it’s also tightly-crafted and dare I say kind of intelligent for what it is. But most importantly, it’s really funny, and just downright entertaining.

When you’ve worn out all of your Unknown Hinson records and if you were one of those kids that grew up on the stylings of Weird Al Yankovic, you’ll love yourself some Hellroys.

I’ve shared the stage with these guys more times than I can remember, and seen just as many of their shows that I wasn’t involved in.
To finally see them getting the recognition they deserve brings a tear to my hillbilly Eyes!
Awesome article Trigger, you nailed just about all the things that we in Columbus have come to love over the past several years!

Pretty poor songwriting and obnoxious vocals. Lowball humor that isn’t all that clever 95% of the time. Seems this entire article was written because trigger knew it would appeal to the lowest common denominator readers……and therefore generate a lot of click-throughs on his paid (to him) amazon link at the end of the article.

I’ll check it out, but I fear that this band/album will lead to the same reaction to me that Wheeler Walker Jr. gets. It’s funny to listen to once or twice, but it’s not really music that “sticks” with you or that you want to listen to repeatedly.

Being in north central Ohio,Well, there’s plenty of folks from my farm heading south to Columbus that fit this song. Hell I even know a few of them, haha. I haven’t dug into these guys too much yet, but I didn’t just look them up on YouTube and got a kick out of “You Gave me a Semi”. Really if you get outside of downtown and suburban Columbus, there’s a bunch of good ol’ boys out in the woods and fields.

I don’t doubt that there are some good old boys out there. I lived near Columbus for four years. I have never been anywhere more bland, nondescript, and devoid of any semblance of culture. The area is like a Petri dish for chain restaurants and retail “concepts.” When I was there (20 years ago,) if you asked a local for a good pizza place, they would, inevitably, say that Donatos had the best pizza in the world. Cheesecake Factory was fine dining. Buffalo Wild Wings is where you went for bar food and to watch the game. Due to Ohio’s alcohol laws at the time, all you could get at every bar or restaurant was Miller, Coors, or AB products. There were no local beers, no craft beers, and almost no imports. Yippee, they have Heineken! Every street, town, subdivision, etc. was planned by some wet-behind-the-ears urban planner fresh out of school. They all look absolutely identical. There is nothing organic. All growth was planned, zoned, managed, and conducted in complete uniformity. It doesn’t help that its incredibly flat, so there are very few topographical anomalies or interesting views, etc. Its basically Florida of the north without the beaches, Walgreens after Target after 7-11 after Starbucks after Wells Fargo after McDonalds, and so on. Ad infinitum. The people were very nice for the most part, but I felt sad for them that they had never had decent beer, decent Italian food, or seen a hill or mountain in their entire lives.

Can’t disagree with you on Columbus itself, it’s not exactly the place I’d care to go to. I don’t care for the layout of the city itself, and it’s hard to believe how much it’s grown in the last couple of decades. I remember fields and pastures that are now bland housing developments. Count me out on that crap. But, you get east of Columbus, you’ll find some hills, not mountains, but it sure ain’t flat. There’s areas you can’t farm, all it’s good for is rocks and trees. I used to haul a lot of hay and straw into Easten ohio and Western PA, and once you get south and east of Mansfield, the landscape totally changes. That my friend, is probably where these boys hail from. That is were you find a lot of southern transplants, where the good old boys roam. And yeah, we really don’t have craft beer or fancy restaurants, but I’d rarher have a steak and an baked potato and wash it down with pretty much any domestic draft. I’m a simple guy I guess.

I hear ya about southern and eastern Ohio. Its beautiful. I’ve camped/fished/hunted all over there. I love the Wayne NF area. Burr Oak lake and the strip ponds areas are great. My buddies and I deer hunted along the borders of the Ohio River last year. Nice country with a lot of hills and valleys. I have lots of friends in Cincy and I like that area of Ohio and northern KY. I have to go to Cleveland for work and there are some nice areas up there, too. I just can’t stand Columbus. And, you’re right, its probably just the city itself. I’m sorry if I came off as a dick by ripping on your homeland. As for food, I don’t need anything fancy, either. I’m just accustomed to local bars, local restaurants and local beer. I live south of Pittsburgh, and I could go out to eat/drink here every night for the rest of my life and never set foot in a chain restaurant or chain bar.

It’s all good RD, columbus ain’t my home and God willing, it never will be. I’m up a little farther north of there in God’a country and that’s where I plan to stay. I dread going down there as much as you do. It’s kinda funny to think about how much the landscape changes in any direction within an hour of my place.